


The Other Side of the Hiatus

by Setcheti



Series: Hiatus [3]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise, The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 08:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setcheti/pseuds/Setcheti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had taken him a while to adjust to his new life, but now that he had he couldn’t imagine ever giving it up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Side of the Hiatus

**Author's Note:**

> _Not to be confused with my_ Outward Bound _series, which is a completely different Star Trek/M7 crossover universe._

Captain Chris Larabee looked around the bridge of his ship with a deep sense of satisfaction.  It had taken him a while to adjust to his new life, but now that he had he couldn’t imagine ever giving it up.

He just hoped he’d never have to.  That time traveler, Daniels had been his name, had told them that what had happened had been a sort of cosmic glitch, a hiccup in the universe as it were, that had switched out Chris and his men for the ship’s previous captain and crew.  Luckily the glitch had also transferred the knowledge needed for them to fill the positions they’d all been put in as well as moving them physically, or else they would have had a real disaster on their hands.

After all, it wasn’t like Chris would ever have even imagined a ship like the _Enterprise_ , much less the idea of using such a thing to leave the planet and travel among the stars – stars populated by alien races, no less. Even Buck hadn’t ever imagined such a thing, being a practical man at heart, and now he was maintaining the engines that let them speed through space to places no man had ever gone before.  Vin was their navigator, steering the ship from star to star – it was just like tracking, the younger man had explained more than once, you just had to use math to do it because your eyes wouldn’t stretch far enough.

Some days, Chris wondered how his brain had stretched far enough to encompass the whole thing without him going completely bat-shit crazy – his brain, not Vin’s.  Not Ezra’s either; Ezra was running ship’s security, and over the course of the past year or so Chris as the captain had come to a new appreciation of the former gambler’s devious mind.  Ezra saw through most problems before they happened, and had backup plans for every possible contingency.  Which was a lucky thing for all of them, since a lot of the alien races they encountered weren’t exactly friendly or honest. Josiah saw a lot of Ezra in Sickbay because of that.

And hadn’t that been a surprise, that Josiah was the ship’s main physician and Nathan was only his assistant.  It had made sense after a while, though; Josiah was more of a researcher, fascinated by other races and cultures, and he was better able to handle the diverse things that came through Sickbay.  Nathan was better with the day-to-day needs of the human crew, and being the physician’s assistant instead of a doctor seemed to make him happier for the time being.  Josiah was gently nudging him to continue his way up the professional ladder, but Nathan was going to have to decide which ladder he wanted to climb first – he had a lot more opportunities in this universe than he ever could have dreamed of having in their old one, something that still was sort of overwhelming to him.

The door to the bridge hissed open, heeled boots clicked on the deckplates, and Chris held back a sigh.  Mary had come with them to the _Enterprise_ , taking the place of a liaison between Starfleet and a planet called Vulcan even though she was human and her predecessor hadn’t been.  Apparently the predecessor had been sort of a bitch, though, because Mary had picked up some of the other woman’s attitude during the exchange and could be difficult to deal with sometimes. She was Chris’s first officer, a position that apparently should have been Buck’s if the Vulcans hadn’t interfered, and she had gotten into a bad habit of being disapproving and/or condescending towards the lesser-ranked members of the crew.  Josiah had explained to Chris that some of it was due to gender-role confusion and would hopefully clear up on its own once Mary fully adjusted to the much freer social standards of their new home, but posited the theory that it might take longer than normal since the ‘programming’ the former newspaperwoman had gotten was at least partially from a race which had fairly restrictive standards of its own.  He’d also pointed out that Inez wasn’t having the same problems, having come from a different culture and less restrictive segment of society than Mary, and Chris had reluctantly let it go – for the time being, anyway.

The captain of the _Enterprise_ turned slightly in his seat and watched his first officer sit down, frowning slightly at what she was wearing as he prepared to head off another genteelly vicious verbal battle between Mary and Ezra if he needed to.  “Sub Commander Travis, what did the High Command have to say this time.”

She gave him a frosty look.  “That would be…”

“Not a secret from my bridge crew,” he interrupted flatly.  “Now report.”

Mary stiffened, radiating disapproval, but gave him what he asked for.  “It is recommended that we do not pursue our present course, as it could possibly bring us into contact with a race Vulcan had had difficulties with in the past.”

Chris saw the look on Inez’s face at Communications and raised an eyebrow.  “Ensign? Something to add?”

“It’s the Andorians, Captain,” Inez told him.  “The Vulcans have had difficulties with them, but we don’t.  The previous captain uncovered a secret listening base the Vulcans were using against the Andorians and shut it down, which led us to having tentative diplomatic relations – they accept the fact that we won’t overtly take sides, but that we’ll act if someone is outside the treaty, no matter who it is.  Their society is slightly more warlike than ours but very much concerned with balance and fairness, so we’re respected for that.”

Chris gave her a smile.  “Sounds like you’ve been studying with Josiah – good job, Ensign. Ensign Tanner,” he addressed Vin at the helm.  “Continue with present course and speed.  If we encounter any Andorian vessels, don’t avoid them.”

“Yes sir.”

Mary made a face like she was sucking on a lemon.  “Captain Larabee, our alliance with Vulcan is much more fruitful than an alliance with any other race will ever be.  We should defer to their superior experience.”

“When they’re right, we do,” he half agreed.  He stood up when he saw her start to protest again and then stop herself.  “Sub Commander, my ready room, now.  Lieutenant Standish, you have the con.”

Ezra nodded but didn’t get up – they were in open space at the moment, there was no need for him to sit in the captain’s chair.  Chris crossed the bridge, patting Inez on the shoulder as he walked past her, and fought his natural inclination to stop at the door and let Mary precede him into his office.  Protocol trumped gentlemanly behavior in situations like this.  He circled around his desk and dropped into his chair, not giving her permission to take a seat of her own.  “In case you’re wondering,” he said coolly, “I already suspected the Vulcans were going to make that suggestion, because Vin and Ezra both warned me that they might – separately, no less.  Making you say it out loud on the bridge was to provide validation of that.”  He cocked an eyebrow at her.  “Mary, you’ve got to decide if you’re one of them or one of us.  What’s good for the Vulcans isn’t always good for Earth and you know it.”

She made a face at him.  “They’re superior to us.”

“They’re supposed to be our allies,” he corrected, not harshly.  “And you know better than your predecessor ever could what happens when one race of sentient beings starts deciding that they’re ‘superior’ to another, right?”

It wasn’t the first time he’d reminded her of that, but she still looked shocked and offended. “That isn’t…”

“It is.  They have more experience than we do, but we have to find our own friends out here and make alliances on our own terms.  Trying to go along with the Vulcan way of doing that has bitten us in the ass more than once already, and I’m not prepared to repeat past mistakes.”  He frowned at her.  “And go change back into the version of that uniform that you’re comfortable with.  You don’t like that one, I don’t like that one, and I’m about one more incident away from calling up Soval and reminding him that your job description doesn’t include the word ‘prostitute’ – if you don’t stand up for yourself I’m going to, and I’ll make a hell of a lot bigger mess doing it.  Are we clear?”

Mary swallowed, but looked relieved.  “Yes, Captain.”

“Good.  Go change, go talk to Sanchez so he can record that Soval’s causing psychological damage by making you dress like a whore in a blatant attempt to influence my command, and then come back to the bridge and get back to work.  I want to know more about the alliances in this area that the Andorians have made.”

“Yes sir.”  She spun on her heel and left the room, and he sighed.  The damned power game Soval kept trying to play was annoying him.  He logged into his terminal and sent a message to Sanchez in Sickbay, letting the man know that Mary was supposed to show up there and why, and then he pulled up past logs regarding the _Enterprise’s_ initial encounter with the Andorians and started reading through them again.  Ezra was alright to stay in charge of the bridge for a while, the rest of the bridge crew had work to do that didn’t require their captain to be there looking over their shoulders, and anything he could glean from the old logs couldn’t help but be to their advantage if there was a confrontation coming.  Chris smiled to himself over one record, shaking his head.  His predecessor sure had gotten the shit kicked out of him a lot, it didn’t sound like he’d been much of a fighter or a really strong leader, either.  Maybe this switching thing had been the best for everyone all the way around.


End file.
